Around 2013, a seasonal lodge worker named Tim took four days off to join two indigenous local friends in a 20-foot Lund skiff traveling up the Kokwok River, a tributary of the Nushagak River below Ekwok. Half a mile past a teardrop-shaped gravel bar at the river's mouth, they discovered a local subsistence gill net that had been intentionally and intricately woven through with thick tree branches and driftwood. Nosing the skiff into a small gap in the overhanging alders between 6:00 AM and 7:00 AM, the men disembarked onto a game trail cutting through small willow shrubs and black spruce trees. Suddenly, a terrifying vocalization that sounded exactly like a woman screaming in agony erupted just 50 yards ahead from inside the tree line.
Armed and believing a person was in danger, they charged forward, but the lead guide stopped and dropped to his knees upon spotting a massive, dark form crouching in the thicket. A second vocalization then blasted out—a multi-octave, deafening roar that transitions from an ultra-low bass rumble up into a piercing, high-pitched shriek. The intensity of the acoustic shock physically traumatized Tim, causing the chocolate milk in his stomach to instantly curdle and inducing violent projectile vomiting. As the men sprinted back toward the river, a large presence heavily paced and paralleled them through the dense brush, attempting to cut off their escape path.
Pushing off the riverbank under the duress of a third close-range scream, Tim fumbled, falling briefly into the freezing river before scrambling into the boat. The party motored half a mile upriver to calm down before opting to cut the motor and silently drift back down to capture a photograph. As they drifted quietly past the grass lines, they heard immense, heavy splashing sounds of something substantial crossing the river channel ahead of them. Upon re-approaching the net site, a final deafening shriek erupted from the right bank, and the men watched in shock as the heavy anchor lead-rope was violently yanked from an unseen force, pulling the submerged gill net halfway out of the river channel and up into the shoreline brush.
